Tug | Digital Media Agency » Bloghttp://www.tugagency.com
Tue, 28 Jul 2015 13:58:35 +0000en-GBhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Tug’s Toronto Summer Partyhttp://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/28/tugs-toronto-summer-party/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/28/tugs-toronto-summer-party/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 13:58:35 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14586On Thursday June 23rd, the drinks were flowing, the music was pumping and on the rooftop patio of Mascot Brewery, Tug was hosting our first of many networking parties. In the middle of Toronto’s summer heat, the best way to spend a Thursday evening is on a patio, and the newly opened Mascot Brewery rooftop…

]]>On Thursday June 23rd, the drinks were flowing, the music was pumping and on the rooftop patio of Mascot Brewery, Tug was hosting our first of many networking parties. In the middle of Toronto’s summer heat, the best way to spend a Thursday evening is on a patio, and the newly opened Mascot Brewery rooftop is the perfect place to network, eat some excellent food, and beat the heat! We had a very fun and successful evening and we can’t wait to do it again this fall!

]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/28/tugs-toronto-summer-party/feed/0Pinterest: Not just a social network, it’s a “Catalogue of Ideas”http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/22/pinterest-not-just-a-social-network-its-a-catalogue-of-ideas/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/22/pinterest-not-just-a-social-network-its-a-catalogue-of-ideas/#commentsWed, 22 Jul 2015 13:48:28 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14579Social networks are undoubtedly a huge part of many people’s lives, a way to connect with others, share experiences and organise our hectic lives. Pinterest definitely covers all these bases and a little more… Founder and CEO Ben Silbermann describes Pinterest as a “catalogue of ideas”, a tool to discover and inspire. At the Fortune…

]]>Social networks are undoubtedly a huge part of many people’s lives, a way to connect with others, share experiences and organise our hectic lives. Pinterest definitely covers all these bases and a little more…

Founder and CEO Ben Silbermann describes Pinterest as a “catalogue of ideas”, a tool to discover and inspire.

At the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado he stated:

There are recipes to cook, there are products to buy, there are places to visit. And we figure our job is taking this huge catalogue of ideas – there are 50 billion pins – and to show you the right ones at the right time. And I think that’s a different thing than a social network.

Now valued at $11 billion, Pinterest is the go to website for creatives. I myself do a lot of design work for our clients and use Pinterest almost daily as a source of inspiration. It’s a fantastic way to visually map out ideas whilst discovering other talented, like-minded creatives.

Pinterest recently strengthened its ties with the advertising industry by introducing ‘promoted pins’ and adding a ‘buy button’, meaning users can purchase products without leaving the website.

According to Silbermann these new additions have been extremely well received:

That speaks to the fact that the motivation between a person who is there to discover something they love and an advertiser who is there to have their product discovered are very closely aligned.

Simon Jenkins, our Social Media Director here at Tug agrees:

I think other platforms (Facebook, Instagram etc.) will be looking at this move into native commerce with a keen eye. Let’s not beat around the bush; since the platforms have successfully opened up to advertisers, the next biggest challenge is to offer those advertisers an e-commerce platform. The main benefit of on-platform purchasing for users is the ease in customer journey. If Social channels and their functionality can prevent users from opening new windows / applications, then we can expect to see advertisers make full use of this. Think about it from the seller’s / advertiser’s point of view. There are fantastic targeting capabilities through Social channels allowing sellers to hit the right audiences, on the right devices. If a potential purchase is just one click away, we’re on the verge of witnessing the next phase in the Social (Media) revolution.

If you look at very recent advancements in technology (namely something like Apple Pay) you can see a trend towards ‘ease & accessibility’. The phrase ‘disruptive’ technology is a little misleading. Whilst it may ‘disrupt’ the market as a whole, it’s anything but disruptive to our lives; it makes them easier. That’s what’s happening to Social Media. New functionality, partnerships and indeed devices are aiming to make our lives easier… and generate revenue along the way!

]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/22/pinterest-not-just-a-social-network-its-a-catalogue-of-ideas/feed/0Protect Your Rankings when Switching to HTTPShttp://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/17/protect-your-rankings-when-switching-to-https/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/17/protect-your-rankings-when-switching-to-https/#commentsFri, 17 Jul 2015 09:27:34 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14561In recent times, you may have spotted more and more website URLs displayed as HTTPS rather than HTTP: HTTPS supplies webmasters with a securer data transfer protocol, more accurate analytics data, and a potential ranking boost in search engines, but there are several SEO dangers that need to be avoided when making the switch. HTTPS…

]]>In recent times, you may have spotted more and more website URLs displayed as HTTPS rather than HTTP:

HTTPS supplies webmasters with a securer data transfer protocol, more accurate analytics data, and a potential ranking boost in search engines, but there are several SEO dangers that need to be avoided when making the switch.

HTTPS stands for Hyper TextTransfer Protocol Secure. It is a more secure version of HTTP, which is the protocol from which data is transferred between a web browser and the website being viewed. HTTPS adds an extra layer of security to this protocol, meaning that communications between a browser and website are encrypted, preventing outside parties from monitoring the communication.

It is quite common for HTTPS protocols to be used for password protected pages, product payment pages, and financially sensitive data.

Benefits

Switching to HTTPS can provide webmasters with the following benefits:

More Referrer DataSites without HTTPS sometimes cannot view accurate referral data in Google Analytics. If traffic passes from an HTTPS site to an HTTP site, the referral data is lost, and this traffic then appears in Google Analytics as “Direct”.

Extra SecurityHTTPS makes a website more secure for visitors by encrypting all communications, ensuring that things like browsing history and credit card details are secure.

Potential Ranking BoostWhilst the impact is said not to be hugely significant, Google have announced that sites using HTTPS will be rewarded with a boost in search rankings.

“over the past few months we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms. We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. For now it’s only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content — while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.” – Google Webmaster Central blog.

Dangers

Unfortunately, there are several risks from an SEO perspective when it comes to switching over to HTTPS, which could result in a loss of search rankings.

Many aspects of a websites HTML code may still point to HTTP URLs rather than HTTPS URLs. This may be found in canonical tags, images, CSS and Javascript files.

Heavy loading sites may also have to be weary of negative effects on page speed, as extra communications are needed between servers after switching to HTTPS.

To ensure against SEO errors from occurring, the following checklist of actions should be completed:

Update your sitemap to reflect the new URLS your site will contain after switching to HTTPS

Submit the new sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools

Update Robots.txt with the new sitemaps

Ensure all elements of your site use HTTPS – including images, CSS, javascript and canonical tags

]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/17/protect-your-rankings-when-switching-to-https/feed/0How Virtual Reality will change the way we do contenthttp://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/09/how-virtual-reality-will-change-the-way-we-do-content/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/09/how-virtual-reality-will-change-the-way-we-do-content/#commentsThu, 09 Jul 2015 07:12:52 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14527Virtual Reality is big right now. Oculus Rift, the headmount that allows you to interact with a computer-simulated reality will become accessible to the public in early 2016 priced at £350 initially. Making the product become more available to the public, will likely change the way we play computer games, watch films and what type…

]]>Virtual Reality is big right now. Oculus Rift, the headmount that allows you to interact with a computer-simulated reality will become accessible to the public in early 2016 priced at £350 initially. Making the product become more available to the public, will likely change the way we play computer games, watch films and what type of content we watch online.

Brands are jumping on the Virtual Reality bandwagon: Samsung and Marvel introduced a VR campaign in 2014 to push the “Avengers: Age of Ultron” film release and this year, VR campaigns can be found all over social media platforms pushing video-based content that provides users with an extremely immerse and real experience like this video by Red Bull that allows users to experience the race track as a Formula 1 driver:

Google have recently launched Google Cardboard which is a clever little design made out of cardboard that allows users a cost-effective virtual reality option. You can simply put your phone into a so-called ‘viewer’, and the viewer will enable you to watch videos in VR.

Users are very receptive to this kind of content. Virtual Reality offers a more immersive experience that makes you feel as though you are part of the action.

In future, this will mean that a lot of brands will move more towards video content. YouTube is now the most-visited social network in the US. Websites are likely to incorporate more Virtual Reality particularly Ecommerce brands will want their visitors to engage with products and get a feel that they really know the product they are about to buy on a website.

Facebook have recently announce that they are working on using drones and satellites to help connect people in remote areas. It is claimed, that laser communications systems will then be used to beam data from the sky and allow users to interact with data.

]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/09/how-virtual-reality-will-change-the-way-we-do-content/feed/0The Day Reddit Went Darkhttp://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/reddit-goes-dark/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/reddit-goes-dark/#commentsFri, 03 Jul 2015 15:57:40 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14522Being a keen redditor, I was shocked this morning when I logged into Reddit to check my daily subs and the majority were set to private. It turns out overnight a large number of subreddits have gone into meltdown following the release of a Reddit member of staff named Victoria Taylor. Victoria was officially known…

]]>Being a keen redditor, I was shocked this morning when I logged into Reddit to check my daily subs and the majority were set to private. It turns out overnight a large number of subreddits have gone into meltdown following the release of a Reddit member of staff named Victoria Taylor. Victoria was officially known as the company’s head of communications, but she was also in charge of the popular Reddit culture of AMA’s (ask me anything). Part of Victoria’s every day job was to organise and effectively manage these AMA’s, with the release however there was noone left to manage or support the subreddits who regularly host AMA’s. This has understandably upset a large number of subreddit admins and has resulted in a good number effectively going offline by going into private mode. A number of the largest subreddits who have gone offline include /r/askreddit, /r/gaming, /r/pics and /r/science.

The first subreddit to go offline was /r/IAMA, an admin of the subreddit named karmanaut explained their reason for going offline:

The admins didn’t realize how much we rely on Victoria. Part of it is proof, of course: we know it’s legitimate when she’s sitting right there next to the person and can make them provide proof. We’ve had situations where agents or others have tried to do an AMA as their client, and Victoria shut that shit down immediately. We can’t do that anymore.

Part of it is also that Victoria is an essential lifeline of communication. When something goes wrong in an AMA, we can call and get it fixed immediately. Otherwise, we have to resort to desperately try messaging the person via Reddit…Part of it is also organization. The vast majority of scheduling requests go through her and she ensures that we have all of the standard information that we need ahead of time (date, time, proof, description, etc.) and makes it easier for the teams that set up AMAs on both ends. She ensures that things will go well and that the person understands what /r/IAMA is and what is expected of them. Without her filling this role, we will be utterly overwhelmed.

Reddit or Victoria are yet to make an official comment but this is sure to have been a shock to the system!

]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/reddit-goes-dark/feed/0Why Content is a Waste of Timehttp://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/content-waste-of-time-whitepaper/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/content-waste-of-time-whitepaper/#commentsFri, 03 Jul 2015 10:55:21 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14499The post Why Content is a Waste of Time appeared first on Tug | Digital Media Agency.
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]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/content-waste-of-time-whitepaper/feed/0The Death of the Written Word?http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/written-word-whitepaper/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/written-word-whitepaper/#commentsFri, 03 Jul 2015 10:49:38 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14495The post The Death of the Written Word? appeared first on Tug | Digital Media Agency.
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With the internet awash in videos, images, infographics and other forms of data visualisation, it may seem like the age of the written word has gone. The common sentiment seems to be that visual content is the only way to get significant online results: people only want nice, pretty, easily shareable stuff, right?

Excel, all Digital practitioners live on it daily, but do we all know how powerful it really is? There are some amazing things you can do – from Macros, all the way down to conditional formatting. In this Whitepaper, I have chosen the top 5 tools which I feel all PPC practitioners should master to save you lots of time which can be used on some proper optimisation.

]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/03/5-excel-tools-ppc/feed/0The Story So Far on the Latest Google Panda Updatehttp://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/01/the-story-so-far-on-the-latest-google-panda-update/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/01/the-story-so-far-on-the-latest-google-panda-update/#commentsWed, 01 Jul 2015 16:38:55 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14474Anyone outside the SEO community may wonder why everyone in the SEO community is talking about pandas. We aren’t all suddenly obsessed with the cuddly giants, although yes, they are adorable and worth discussing. We’re talking about pandas because we’re talking about Google’s latest Panda update. A brief background on Panda: although Google is constantly making minor changes…

]]>Anyone outside the SEO community may wonder why everyone in the SEO community is talking about pandas. We aren’t all suddenly obsessed with the cuddly giants, although yes, they are adorable and worth discussing. We’re talking about pandas because we’re talking about Google’s latest Panda update.

A brief background on Panda: although Google is constantly making minor changes to their search algorithm, they occasionally roll out a more significant update (like Panda or Penguin) with more noticeable results. Panda was introduced back in 2011 as a way to stop sites with poor-quality content from appearing in Google’s top search results, and every so often Google releases a new update on the algorithm. There have been 27 Panda refreshes since its inception, and the latest one happened in September 2014.

So what’s the latest?

Here’s what we know:

End of April 2015: Shortly after the release of Google’s mobile algorithm update (fondly dubbed ‘Mobilegeddon‘), many webmasters reported changes in their organic search rankings, sparking discussion about another Panda or Penguin on the horizon.

4 May 2015: Many believed that an update happened over the first weekend in May due to ranking changes; however, Google promptly denied this.

19 May 2015: Again, we thought Panda had landed, as more large-scale ranking changes were occurring. But this turned out to be Google’s ‘Quality Update,’ nicknamed the ‘Phantom 2′ because something seemed to be happening with the search results but Google wasn’t acknowledging it. Google eventually confirmed that yes, they implemented alterations to its core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals, but it wasn’t Panda.

2 June 2015: Google’s Gary Illyess confirmed at a conference to expect the update in the next two to four weeks.

17 June 2015: Google’s John Mueller confirmed in a Google hangout that the Panda update will be coming in the next couple of weeks.

Present: Still no sign of Panda yet, just confirmations that it will be coming soon. Some webmasters hypothesize that the update will hit around the 4th of July, as this is something that Google did in past years.

What should we do?

To avoid being penalised, there are a five factors you should have in place:

]]>http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/07/01/the-story-so-far-on-the-latest-google-panda-update/feed/0A week of using Binghttp://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/06/26/a-week-of-using-bing/
http://www.tugagency.com/blog/2015/06/26/a-week-of-using-bing/#commentsFri, 26 Jun 2015 16:27:36 +0000http://www.tugagency.com/?p=14463What happens when you decide to set yourself the challenge of using Bing for a week instead of Google? It was an unmitigated failure to be honest. Not without want of trying, Google is so ingrained into the way that I interface with the web and information in general, that I would find myself defaulting…

]]>What happens when you decide to set yourself the challenge of using Bing for a week instead of Google?

It was an unmitigated failure to be honest. Not without want of trying, Google is so ingrained into the way that I interface with the web and information in general, that I would find myself defaulting automatically before I remembered my pledge.

I use an Android phone and am therefore almost wired into Google with my every move, which made it particularly hard not to somehow find myself on a Google service or search result.

On my desktop I had set my default homepage to Bing.com and was doing a bit better but still found myself jumping back on Google to find certain things. Obviously Google is still the key search traffic driver for all my clients and so it is hard not to need to use it during my working week.

Having said this I was pleasantly surprised with some functionality that Bing has evolved within their search, in particular their approach to Video and Image search. I found the interface very intuitive and helpful.

Clearly in the example above all the results were YouTube videos and so quickly led me back into the Google garden.

Bing have also recently been talking about how they have upgraded their image processing within their algorithm and are able to recognise a more recent photograph of people, and reward that as being more relevant within the image results. This was famously promoted with the briefly popular (unpopular depending on your result) http://how-old.net

Despite the argument that more competition is a good thing for the user, if anything this brief test has proven to me how dependent/unconscious my use of Google has become.

Pick an alternative search engine and have a go and see how long you last.